Domestic and Sexual Violence Statistics

Sexual violence

• 20% of women and 4% of men have experienced some type of sexual assault since the age of 16
• 3.1% of women and 0.8% of men aged 16 to 59 had experienced sexual assault in the last year

(Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales March 2017)

• Approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men aged 16-59 experience rape, attempted rape or sexual assault by penetration in England and Wales every year
• Only around 15% of those who experience sexual violence report to the police.
• Approximately 90% of those who are raped, know the perpetrator prior to the offence.

(Source: Ministry of Justice, Office for National Statistics  and Home Office joint statistics bulletin on sexual violence, January 2013) For more sexual violence data please visit www.rapecrisis.org.uk 

Femicides

• Between 120 and 150 women and girls over the age of 14 are killed in male violence against women every year in the UK.
• In 2018, 149 women and girls over the age of 14 were killed by 147 men
• 91 of the 149 women killed in 2018 (61%) were killed by current or former male partner
• 17 of the 149 women (11%) were killed by son, step-son, son-in-law or ex son-in-law
• 23 (16%) of the 149 women killed in 2018 were aged over 66 with the eldest being 100 years old
• Overkilling was present in 56% of femicides
• Only 6% of femicides (9 victims) were committed by a stranger.

(Source: Femicide Census 2018) For femicide data 2009-2018 please visit: www.femicidescensus.org

Domestic violence

Almost one in three women aged 16-59 will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime (Source: Office for National Statistics (2019) Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2019) 

Femicides  (domestic violence)

• 91 of the 149 women killed in 2018 (61%) were killed by current or former male partner
• There was evidence of previous abuse or violence in over half the 133 cases (52%) where the perpetrator was known to the victim.
• In at least 37 of the 91 cases where a woman was killed by a current or ex partner, women had separated or taken steps to separate with 30% of them killed within the first month and 70% killed within the first year.
• 102  (68%) femicides took place in the woman’s home whether or not this premises was shared with the perpetrator.

(Source: Femicide census) For femicide data 2009-2018 please visit: www.femicidescensus.org

Prostitution

There are no accurate statistics for the number of women involved in prostitution. However, it is known that women in prostitution are 12 times more likely than women in the general population to be victims of murder (Salfati et al 2008). Figures vary as to the scale and extent of violence experienced by women involved in prostitution with several studies citing levels among their samples of 70 – 75%

FGM

There are no reliable statistics for the scale and extent of FGM in the UK. According to Equality Now and City University London, an estimated 103,000 women and girls aged 15–49 were thought to be living with female genital mutilation (FGM) in England and Wales as of 2011.

Forced Marriage

The Foreign Office which has a special unit working on forced marriage reported nearly 1200 cases in the year 2017 – 2018 although several cases go unreported and not all cases of forced marriage have cause to involve the Foreign Office at all so figures are likely to be higher.

So called ‘Honour’ crimes

Again statistics are unreliable with an approximation of 12 a year in the UK estimated by the honour based violence awareness network

Stalking

• Data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales shows up to 700, 000 women are stalked each year (Source: Crime Survey of England and Wales, 2009-2012)
• A study on the relationship between stalking and homicide involving a female victim and male perpetrator, found that in 71% of cases the victim and perpetrator were in, or had previously had, an intimate relationship  (Source: Monckton Smith et al in conjunction with the Suzy Lamplugh trust 2017)